So we spent the entire day today at the Biltmore Estate. The weather was absolutely delightful (I thought). It was a little on the warm side when we were outdoors, but it was still much cooler and less humid than any other day on the trip. I thought it was a great day. I had visited the Biltmore a few years ago with Andy (same weekend, actually), and really enjoyed it a lot. At that time, I knew I wanted to come back with April and Morgan, as I thought they’d both really like it as well. Today I really enjoyed watching April and Morgan experience it for this first time.
We arrived in the morning, a little before our tour started, and managed to get sunny pictures of the house with not too many people and no shuttles in front of it! (This is quite a feat). We sprang for the audio tours, something Andy and I hadn’t done the last time (read: cheap). I’m glad we got them this time, as it added some much more to the tour of the house. We learned so much about the family, the people that visited them, and the folks that worked on the estate.
After the house tour, some lunch, and shopping, we spent quite a bit of time in the gardens, which Morgan and April really liked a lot. We then also checked out the bass pond and waterfall (lots of opportunities for Morgan-related mishaps here, thankfully none occurred).
We then checked out Antler Hill village, a new installment with shops and restaurants near the farm and winery. We checked out the farm, where Morgan chased baby goats around the petting zoo for a while, and then enjoyed a demonstration by the resident blacksmith at the Biltmore, who was this amazing man representing a dying breed of American tradesmen. Luckily, blacksmithing is as much an artisan’s craft as it is a utilitarian one, and today this man makes a lot of beautiful artwork, specifically a lot of leaf key chains, one of which Morgan bought. He demonstrated how to make one of said key chains for us, and it was amazing to watch this man mold metal into a little delicate leaf—in about 10 minutes. The juxtaposition of such a dirty, noisy, heavy process and the nuances of the artwork were just incredible. It got even better when he “played” the anvil for us. The anvil he played was clearly used for just that, and not making anything, same with the hammers that he used to play it. Evidently, the anvil can be tuned to different pitches, with different sections of it having different pitches, depending upon how much saw dust is layered underneath various parts of the anvil. He started to play it by striking the hammers on it, and drawing the sides of the hammerhead along the anvil, and it was incredible—sounded like wind chimes! Not the heavy “bong bong” of the Anvil Chorus. It was really amazing to watch this big-armed, barrel-chested, thick-handed man use ball-peen hammers to coax delicate music out of a hunk of .
After the blacksmith it was time for the wine tasting! Yay!!! It was funny how Morgan and I jumped right into this, but just couldn’t get April to get over her disgust of wine. We kept suggesting wines we thought she’d find more palatable, but each time April would make a face, and force the small sip of wine down her throat, then down about 5 wine biscuits to get rid of the taste. Guess she’d do better at an honest-to-god wine tasting where you spit it out…. Anyway, for those who know me well, it should come as no surprise that I came away with 6 bottles of wine. In my defense, however, at least 3 of these are intended for other people.
At that point, we were pretty much Biltmored out, so we said good-bye to the estate, and headed back to the hotel for a bit of rest, before stuffing ourselves with ribs and good Carolina BBQ at 3 Little Pigs, a meal that I admit I had been looking forward to for days, if not weeks. Great little hole-in-the-wall joint between the estate and downtown Asheville, where everything is served on paper, plastic & Styrofoam, is dirt cheap, and tastes AMAZING!!! Gotta eat there if you’re ever in Asheville.
Highlight of the rest of the day (or night rather) was Morgan screaming in her sleep and sitting straight up in bed. We’d talked so much on the trip about her rolling out of bed, probably due to fighting for real estate with April (with whom she was sharing at the time) that I thought it had actually happened. But a second or two later, she was asking to have the light turned on, to get her bearings. She mentioned something about thinking there was something in the room, so then I started thinking critters are running around. Finally she said that she dreamt something fell on her, and she woke up and couldn’t remember where she was. Good to know the whole thing was all in her head, and not real. Out went the light, and back to sleep, with no more problems for the rest of the night.
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